Void Kings
by JerTheUnbidden
Summary: In an AU of the actual Warframe storyline, Captain Vor survives his brush with death at the hands of the Lotus and the Tenno, and ventures into hiding. Elsewhere, a young boy loses his home and his family, and is pulled into the middle of a solarwide conflict between multiple factions.
1. Chapter 1: A Primer

"Wake up!" came a harsh voice, as Yaruk felt a hand nudge his shoulder – his brown eyes snapping open wearily. Over him leaned his mother, an aging brown haired Earthling woman, fear and urgency in her eyes.

"What is it, Dala?" the young boy asked, using the formal greeting as he sat up, but before he could get to his feet, he more felt than heard something large streak far above their hut, still managing to rattle their old ferrite roofing.

Tossing him some clothing wraps, his mother hissed;

"To the shelter, now, and don't look back!"

Yaruk tucked tail and ran out into the byway between huts in his small, long-hidden Earth village just as more Grineer ships streaked over head, their tyrannical engines lighting up the night sky and treetops around him with a bright orange glow. All the villagers were scrambling for the underground shelter towards the northeast, some panicked, some whispering in hushed voices.

But, just as Yaruk watched a large Galleon coast overhead as he moved with his neighbors, screams erupted as their was a large whining sound from above them and then a crack, as a control unit spiked into the ground through a market stand. This hourglass shaped, green mechanical fiend anchored into the ground as panels on either side opened up and began spinning, coils alight with visibly arcing electricity.

In all directions the villagers began running, pell-mell, but those nearest the machine were caught in the Enforcer's discharge. Among those ensnared by this totally paralyzing blast of electricity, Yaruk caught quick glimpses of Teshala the fisherman's wife, Old Man Boko, and a handful of others who were all burnt severely and sent to their knees.

Then came the twisted, bulbous Grineer themselves, a dozen or more different soldiers of various different shapes, sizes and weaponry landed from another booming drop pod not dissimilar to the deployment device of the Enforcer machines'. Yaruk dived and rolled behind a particularly thick building foundation as he noticed one of them take aim.

Those nearest him weren't so lucky, he watched as dozens of those to his left were cut down by gunfire, blood pouring out of each body in excess. Those on his right were either diving for their lives or screaming as they headed even more vigorously towards the shelter, some even seemingly making it down the stairs and vanishing into the dark unknown. A red laser trailed up and across the ground, shimmering with the blades of grass, and found purchase in the back of a small child maybe the age of six with a sickening crack that echoed through the night.

Yaruk watched in horror as the snipers shot ripped the boy's right arm from him, he fell screaming and gushing blood. Some parental bellow of sorrow and pain came from the yonder woods, no doubt some poor soul having just witnessed the killing of their child. Just behind him, Yaruk heard a flurry of boots stomp through the dirt, some further back the way they all came, into the village, kicking in doors, shots piercing the pauses in between. Yet, closer to him, the Grineer moved up, occasionally shouting orders or comments between them. Yaruk, snapped from his terror, scrambled to his right as quiet as he could manage in his current state, into the woods and he crouched, slumped and hyperventilating behind a tree.

The Grineer cascaded over the remaining village like a horde of relentless and starving beasts, lighting fire to the huts, some of the trees, and slaughtering anything and anyone they discovered. Man, woman, child and pet alike were blasted, stabbed or beaten to death by the squad of Grineer that happily tore through the folk.

Peering through the woods and leaves, Yaruk sat and listened as his village was massacred; his mother, his neighbors, his lover, the elders. With each blood curdling scream, his fingernails dug deeper into his palms, and his heartbeat rhythmed like an ancient war drum in his ears.

Louder and louder his heartbeat grew, over the winds whistling through the trees, louder than quietly chirping birds in the distance, louder than the rushing river that bordered his now blood drenched village, louder even than the grotesque murderers that stalked his village; those pitiless Grineer bastards. Louder and louder until, Yaruk realized that the movingly rhythmic drumming was an actual drumming sound that boomed all around the area.

It was engines.

Something dark and gilded streaked overhead, spooking the Grineer visibly, Yaruk watched as the sniper raised her rifle to the sky, before lowering it in distinct frustration. In the distance above the treetops, Yaruk saw the dark claw shaped ship circle around and pause, before jetting up and high into the sky.

"Agrear grear," spoke one of the Grineer closest to Yaruk, as it shouldered its rifle, looking around.

Another passed him and nodded.

Almost half a second later, there came a woosh sound, and like the rolling out of a grand glowing carpet, giant five-leaved plants, which were illuminated a goldish white, spread out quickly along the ground where all the Grineer stood.

The effects were immediate, Yaruk watched the Grineer panic, pained.

"Kley'gre reger!" roared a tall one bearing a large weapon, scanning the trees.

"Ket klem!" Another one ordered, and it began firing off into the woods opposite where the young Earthling crouched, gunfire flashes lighting the area repeatedly.

If Yaruk had blinked, he would have missed a jet black form, lined with glistening gold, shoot twisting through the air out of the distant woods like a bullet towards a sniper at the far back. In some miraculous maneuver, it whipped a gigantic blade around off of its back mid-flight and it presumably used the weight of the blade to spin through two Grineer like some nightmarish tornado, slicing them both in half and showering the now ruined town with bright red.

The Warframe rolled, as two other Grineer succumbed to injuries from the radioactive grove that had sprung up not but a mere minute beforehand.

"Tenno skoom!" Yelled that same heavy gunner from before, as a third of her squad was decimated so quickly; she and the others loosed fire towards the twin horned devil that had just arrived.

Not perturbed, the Tenno twisted off into the air again into the trees adjacent from its entrance, bounding off of a tree trunk back and upwards, now hurtling tens of feet above the remaining Grineer within seconds. Truth be told, Yaruk was having a hard time keeping up, but watched in awe as the Warframe raised a hand while riding the momentum of its jump.

Below, all eight of the remaining Grineer were captured and raised by what only could be described as bright white orbs that radiated a blistering otherworldly heat.

And as Oberon Prime fell to his Earth, he slammed a powerful fist into the ground; with that singular movement - he shattered every single Grineer around him like a fragile doll.


	2. Chapter 2: A Dealing

-2-

In the distance, the Warframe knelt next to the Heavy Grineer and presumably gave it a once over, before straightening up to its full height again. It made to move, but a shimmering form materialized next to the being as a gentle voice rang out.

"Tenno, there is a survivor."

Slowly, the faceless warrior totem of the ancient Orokin turned towards Yaruk, who froze. In a flash, the legends of the Tenno bounded through his mind, these empty beings of no mercy or feeling.

Yaruk stood shakily and began backing away, but was startled by the booming engines of a ship rocketing back towards them. The hologram of the Lotus materialized before Yaruk, and knelt.

"We will take you to safety. Come with us." She said, her commanding tone somehow soothing Yaruk slightly. Behind her, the Oberon was bringing his ship down to the bloodied and flattened marketplace that Yaruk knew so well.

"My mother," Breathed the young boy, more to himself than anything. He walked through the Lotus projection and back into his town.

Oberon and Lotus watched in silence as Yaruk wandered about the bloodied town, tears pouring relentlessly. In shock, the boy could do or say nothing of the townsfolk, his neighbors. His family. Bloodied bodies lay strewn like confetti against buildings, in doorways, all around him. Behind Oberon's now landed ship, his home and others were ablaze, the fire crackling peaceful in the silence of night.

Yaruk stared down at the blank mask of a dead Grineer soldier, those cruel, dark eye holes boring into him like murderous drills.

"It's time to go," Came a new and harsher voice. Yaruk turned as he heard an otherworldly sound, something like the cross of the rippling of waves and flapping of a flag. A boy a little bit older than him, with tan skin and metallic eyes walked towards him, black and gold waistcoat flapping in the wind. Behind him, Oberon stood stiff and lifeless, like a statue.

"Get in the ship, there isn't much room but Lotus will take you to my orbiter. Cephalon Shegga will make sure you're taken care of." The Tenno walked towards him, jaw set but eyes soft.

"But I,-"Yaruk protested.

"The Grineer will be back. Once this squad doesn't report in they'll send more in greater numbers."

Yaruk broke even more, prompting Lotus to appear next to him again.

"Trust us, and these people will not have died for nothing." Lotus consoled the young survivor. Gritting his teeth and taking a breath, Yaruk nodded once.

Lotus materialized over by a ramp that was lowered from the black and gold ship, and the Tenno rejoined with his Warframe, Yaruk watched in awe as the stranger began to shimmer and float, before disappearing backwards through Oberon's chest.

"Do you have a name?" the Tenno asked, his voice slightly garbled from within the druid king.

"They called me Yaruk," the boy answered, lump in his throat. He walked with Oberon to the ramp.

"You can call me Jho, and this is the Lotus." Oberon responded, and Lotus beckoned to Yaruk, motioning for him to go up the ramp.

A few moments passed while Yaruk boarded the Xiphos, Lotus showed him to the small cargo area where he would be safe and secure for his ride to the orbiter. Oberon watched the area, before he turned and watched his ship rocket up and out of the atmosphere.

In his vision, the familiar small portrait of Lotus appeared.

"Tragic," she said simply, and Oberon nodded as he shouldered his shotgun.

"If I had been minutes quicker," Jho responded.

"There's nothing we can do now aside from getting the boy safely to Cetus, Konzu will see he's taken care of. I will focus on that, you need to find Vor." Lotus responded, settling into her usual role of director.

"Get _him_ for me." Jho said shortly and a visible smirk appeared on the hidden face of the Lotus.

"Get moving, Tenno. I'll fill him in on the details."

With that, Oberon stored his shotgun and bullet jumped into the woods and away from the war torn and blood soaked lost village that was Yaruk's former home.

The angular metallic and claw shaped feet of the once great Captain Vor clanked on the metallic landing platform of a small Grineer outpost on Venus, a private outpost he had claimed far from the view of Orb Vallis, which lay to the far south on the greenhouse planet. Vor was flanked by the few of his last remaining truly loyal soldiers, but their numbers were dwindling each day.

Casting his dark eyes to the orange sky, Vor could just see the floating ringlets of the derelict Orokin planetary defense system, and beyond them, one of Nef Anyo's capital ships. With a curled lip, the Captain strode into the outpost, heading for his command room. Deep into the former Corpus foundation his most loyal soldiers were waiting for him, poring over documents on various terminals. These few Grineer were among the most highly engineered, even beyond some of Regor's maniacal experiments.

After a formal greeting, Vor addressed his most trusted confidant; Gob. Gob wasn't an especially fantastic name for a Grineer, but then, they were lucky to make it out of the cloning tube at all in some cases.

"How many of the Tenno have we taken, these past weeks?" Vor asked, and Gob shuffled about a centerpiece projector in their octagonal auditorium. He brought up a couple of holographic panels that flashed up in tasteless Corpus blue; various video feeds showing Tenno operations across numerous facilities. The other Grineer in the room turned their attention to their ranking officers, as Vor grimaced at the sight of his hated enemies.

"Their numbers are growing since your failu-" Gob stopped himself short, "since your _miscalculation_ with the Ascaris device three Earth months ago. It seems there are just over a hundred active Tenno, that's an estimate."

Captain Vor grimaced at the number. Just the first 8 Tenno that made themselves known - for the first time in centuries no less - were able to create massive issues for the Grineer queens and their operations system-wide. As a side-note, the Corpus weren't doing much better dealing with the growing Tenno threat, though this thought didn't do much to calm Vor down about the issue.

Gob continued;

"However, we have managed to locate more base-model Warframe stasis devices. Unfortunately, we haven't had much luck locating some of the other models, and more new ones are being seen daily. As far as how the Tenno are operating, it doesn't seem to have much of a pattern. Some of them are seen frequently in the same groups, some are seen alone, some aren't seen _at all_ outside of robbing trade secrets from the Corpus, and of course our own files."

Gob took a breath, and Captain Vor held up a hand.

"A few weeks ago one of them managed to kill our _Queen,_ and this is all you have for me? Movement patterns?!" Vor demanded, indignant.

"One of our Queens," Gob corrected, as Vor's eyes narrowed. "Either way, since the Moon re-appeared, yes. They have been getting more bold. I don't have an answer as to why that is, but, it is. Our remaining Queen has been moved off of the Kuva Fortress, as you know. But, as to why you're here well, if you head into the back room your transponder is ready."

Vor let out a short breath of impatience as he cast one last glance at the screens showing the Tenno in various operations; his eyes lingering on one feed wherein a group of Corpus were shuffling about in a panic - covered in bright pink pustules; spores- amidst a group of their poisoned and melting allies. Captain Vor shoved past his lackeys and into the back room, where there was naught but a large display, as large as the back wall and leaning down slightly towards the floor. Upon the counter at waist height below the screen was a blinking blue button, which Vor pressed.

The screen fizzled into life and focused on the shape in the center of the screen; a pale, gold adorned person, with glowing golden eyes and one long right arm. A smirk crossed the face of Vor's correspondent.

"Well then, _Captain_ Vor," said the Orokin Ballas, his voice sending chills down even Vor's crooked spine, "I take it that we can talk business?"


	3. Chapter 3: A Meeting

-3-

"Can you believe this?" complained Corpus Crewman Chas Kotta to himself; exasperatedly raising and then dropping his hand in the direction of the door marked out of order by his direct superior.

"I am not paid enough for this, profit be praised." Muttered the long time Corpus associate, as he unlocked one of the red security closets nearby and he grabbed himself a vac-broom. Checking his punch-watch, he grimaced at his remaining time on duty which read ' **FOURTEEN THOUSAND, SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS, FOUR MONTHS, ONE WEEK, TWO DAYS, TWENTY-ONE HOURS, SIXTEEN MINUTES AND FIFTY-EIGHT SECONDS** '.

Passing this watch device over the scanner on the center of the marked doorway, the metal panel beeped once, and then slid upwards and out of sight. The camera in the room focused on him, and Chas gave his superiors a little sarcastic wave, and then focused his helmeted head on the mess on the floor before him. A large puddle of water stretched across the floor - clear water - and tiled Corpus flooring smiled up at him from underneath the shimmering liquid.

 _'Another day in credit paradise'_ he thought, and activated the vac-broom, which vibrated to life, its business end heating up and pulling in air, so as to vacuum up the water and evaporate it out the other end. The Crewman leaned in to work, but as he stuck his broom down into the water to do his work, he was dragged down into the puddle which was now as deep as an ocean whose bottom was black as night. The Corpus thrashed, looking upward, where again he saw the camera staring down at him - though whether his superiors could see him, he did not know.

Through his helmet display, he caught something moving in his far peripherals with a pang of terror in his gut, but he had no time to make it out. What looked like sentient seaweed - tentacles - had grabbed his feet and he was dragged down deeper into this ocean of terror. Screaming now, the Corpus was just a line of less and less air bubbles as he was taken down to meet the beast below. Hydroid Prime watched satisfactorily from afar, arms crossed and floating effortlessly some twenty feet beneath the surface.

In the Corpus facility closet, the puddle moved out of the room it had occupied and down hallways, any wandering guards in its path dropping into the abyss below; never to be heard from or seen again. But by now, the overseers had taken notice, and the Corpus was coming out in force. Down a hallway ahead, Hydroid noted the mass of enemies posted up, various Crewmen, Moas, a few shield Ospreys, and all taking cover under the bubble shield of a Corpus Nullifier.

 _'If I get too close, the Nullifier will just cancel Undertow.'_ Thought Taj; the Tenno commanding the Hydroid Prime Warframe. _'Head on it is, then.'_

Hydroid rose up out of the puddle mid dash, water cascading around in the hallway in his wake, in a massive Tidal Surge. Soma Prime raised, Hydroid engaged the enemy ahead of him, surfing forward and firing on the Nullifier, who began back pedaling as his shield was eaten away by the flurry of bullets being sent his way. The Corpus mounted a defense as best they could, but the shield Ospreys were the first to go, mechanical drone parts slamming to the ground with a flat thunk.

Just then, the Lotus appeared in Taj's visor, as the Nullifier bubble completely popped, just in time for the entire squad of Corpus goons to be swept away by the Tidal Surge.

"Tenno, still taking it to the Corpus, I see?" Lotus remarked, no doubt she could somehow see Taj's every action, a feeling that had unsettled him ever since he was awoken.

"Every chance I get." Taj responded shortly, knowing that a visit from the Lotus was never without caveat; he decided he would give her the opportunity to speak.

Meanwhile, Hydroid had carved a swath through the small group of Corpus and was on his way, heading towards the reactor rooms. Of course, a small battalion of Corpus stood between him and his goal; but this was nothing new.

"Jho thinks he's found a lead on Vor, near Cetus on Earth. Every lead we've run so far has pointed towards some strange experiments that Councilor Vay Hek is doing in conjunction with both Tyl Regor and Captain Vor." Lotus spoke, as Hydroid rode an elevator up about four stories, and the door opened.

Hydroid melted down into a puddle before Taj responded;

"You're sure he's sure he has a lead?" he asked, and Lotus nodded, Hydroid had now bypassed a laser grid, tentacles were dragging various Corpus into the pool as he passed.

"This one seems very tangible, we have the location of a high level Grineer outpost near the Plains of Cetus, we'll have to pass through Cetus to get some valuable info from Konzu, but Jho wants your backup on this."

Behind him, the laser grid had deactivated, and a Scrambus slid into the room on two electric blue razorblades. With a pulse of some great energy, Hydroid's abilities were canceled and he was yanked up out of his ethereal puddle and into the normal world. To his far right, another door opened and a handful of Corpus Crewman funneled into the workspace, with heavier units behind them.

"It's been a bit since we took on an assignment together, when does he want to meet?" Taj said as he commanded his frame to engage those interrupting his espionage.

"At the moment he's just as busy as you are, though I imagine he'll be heading to Cetus within the hour." Lotus responded, curt.

Agreeing to meet his friend, Hydroid reholstered his AkBroncos, after having dealt with the Corpus, and turned to tackle the encrypted terminal before him. Taj didn't exactly have an express purpose for raiding the Corpus, he just despised their ideology and made sport out of ruining their lives in his free time. He decided to send a powerful virus in the direction of the fourteen nearest Corpus outposts, opting to wipe out all of their files and transfer their credits to random other accounts throughout the system.

Within the next few minutes, he had made his way back to his ship and set off towards his Orbiter, directing his Cephalon to set course for Earth.

Cetus was alive and active with all sorts of beings - more than Yaruk expected; all his life he had known men and women who made the pilgrimage to Cetus in order to trade their works - specifically finely woven mats, their main commodity and skill - and bring fish, grains, and other supplies back to his now ruined birthplace. Walking through the village he caught a variety of scents, meats cooking, some sort of metallic oils, the scent of what he thought to be fishing baits, sweat and even blood, but most of all it was the pure scent of the sea that struck the orphan. It was new to him, the others were not.

A calming breeze rustled the tarps that criss-crossed overhead, forming a patchy roof over the dozens of market stalls that he passed, in tow of an Ostron woman named Saya, who had collected him from the Tenno ship he had previously boarded. She had been talking to him, or trying to at least. Yaruk was slap in the middle of shock, grief, and being amazed at the sights around him. Chief of which, was the large white building in the center of Cetus, stretching up into the sky, an ancient gazebo of sorts, more grand than anything he had ever seen.

They passed all manner of creature that Yaruk was unfamiliar with; a few people that had strange deformations that reminded him somewhat of the Grineer with a pang, there were humanoids dressed in sleek purple and gray, with hardy metallic boxes where their heads might have gone, and they were arguing in a language that Yaruk thought he might never understand.

"Yaruk?" the boy snapped his attention to his guide

"Sorry, Saya, much is happening." he said, with a sheepish smile, which the older woman responded.

"Yes, I know. I asked if you'd like to rest first, or meet Konzu now? I know you've had a long day." Saya asked, as they sifted through a more compact alleyway now, heading towards the back of the encampment.

At a first thought, Yaruk was exhausted. Not that he had been awake for a particularly long time, but his emotional turmoil was taking it out of him. But then he caught sight of the end of the alley, which seemed to open up into a sort of courtyard. He noticed there were dozens of _figures_ standing around, all armed to the absolute brim. The Tenno, more than he had ever dreamed of seeing, were milling about amongst themselves. All shapes, sizes and colors were accounted for, here. All weapon types, as well. Saya let Yaruk go ahead, in his sudden excitement at the sight of them.

Most of them looked somewhat similar, a sleek and muscular body, with fine trimmings and only one distinguishing feature; a blunt sort of horn that ran up from where the bridge of its nose might be. But a few were remarkable in physique and form. Yaruk walked around peering at all the different types; a large and foreboading one, with arms the size of tree trunks and the biggest sword he had ever seen slung across its back, another was slender and elegant in form, but with a mohawk of furious flame. As he glanced around, there seemed all types - one with a strangely shaped head and a crown of vertical golden half-circlets, another with arms that were fragmented into bits yet floating perfectly into place, and even a scary one with a dark hood hiding its features with only four menacing glowing red dots peering out from underneath the facade.

Yaruk was in awe at these Tenno, all standing casually about, as if waiting for some great battle.

"They wait for nightfall;" came a familiar voice, not Saya's. Yaruk turned, to find Oberon Prime standing before him. Jho exited his Warframe to greet the orphan, and glanced around at his Tenno allies.

"You aren't with them?" Yaruk asked, gesturing to all the Tenno coming and going to and from a man he assumed must be Konzu.

"We are together, but apart." Jho responded, and then noted Yaruk's confusion. "We all have seperate goals."

"And the Lotus, she's like, your mother?"

The Tenno gave a chuckle,

"Something like that," he said, passing a wave to another Warframe that stalked by, this one very macabre in appearance, all jagged edges and knashing teeth, ghost arms crossed over his chest.

"So why are you here?" Yaruk asked, doing his best to not appear rude.

"Doing the best I can to find justice for your home. But, it may take some time."

Jho answered a few more questions that Yaruk asked him, before Saya came over and they agreed to go and meet Konzu, leaving the Tenno alone with his thoughts. Receding backwards into Oberon, he took stock of his bretheren around him. As usual for a meeting area, not unlike Maroos or the few Relays that had survived the Fomorians; there were more than a few Excalibur units milling around. Jho had often mused on whether it was luck to have been awoken as an Oberon - a Prime no less - or whether it was a curse. The way he understood it, the Excalibur units were mass produced on a scale that far exceeded any other Warframe; and there were only a handful of Primes for each of the various other models, but the Excal units held massive potential, other types, not so much. Of course, more new types of frames and Primes were being discovered each day.

This was thanks to Vor's never ending attempt to use the Ascaris device on any new Warframe pod that the Grineer uncover, the influx of new Tenno was happening daily. Of course, the Grineer obsession with Vor's prize had cost them much, and their numbers had begun to thin out nearly immediately - that is of course, before Regor decided to remove the defect failsafe from the cloning machines, resulting in mindless combat drones that could be churned out by the thousands.

"Lost in thought, brother?"

Oberon turned, to see Hydroid Prime coming towards him. They clasped forearms in greeting, before walking towards the large Cetus gates.

"Trying to wrap my head around what we're about to do." Jho responded, as the massive doors opened and they entered the short hallway before the Plains of Eidolon, they took stock of their weapons as the second set of doors slid open.


End file.
